Despite the score of 5-4, Saturday’s game against the Flyers was not as close as that. The Penguins definitely carried the play for the majority of the game and played strong defensively. Two broken sticks and a thoughtless giveaway which lead to a short handed goal are the only reasons the Flyers were even in the game at all.

Fleury faced only 27 shots as the Penguins continued to improve their play as of late playing the same system under Bylsma as they played under Therrien. Again leading me to ask why even have a coaching change.

The Penguins fell down 1-0 in the first as Biron weathered a storm of shots and Lupul (17) scored for the Flyers midway through. But the Penguins stormed out in the second and just 21 seconds in, Sidney Crosby (22) tied the game. The Penguins kept pressure on and added goals from Malkin (27) and Fedotenko (12) to conclude the period up 3-1.

In the third, Richards stole the puck on a cross ice pass while the Penguins were on the power play and looking to extend their lead. Richards went in alone against Fleury and opened him up to scoot the puck through his five hole to cut the lead to one. Philadelphia scored again to tie the game at three and then Fedotenko (13) scored his second of the game to put the Penguins up 4-3.

Philadelphia came back again with a goal from Knuble (21) but then the Penguins got a bizarre goal to make it 5-4. 4-4 the Penguins broke into the Flyers zone and Biron came way out to the circles to take away the puck. Biron then flipped the puck softly behind his back where it was picked up by Pascal Dupuis who fed Crosby who put the puck in the empty net.

It was the second game in a row where the Penguins had to struggle to get a win and the second game in a row they managed two points with a 5-4 victory against teams ahead of them in the standing.

The win moves the Penguins to 29-25-6 (64pts). Ahead of them, Montreal is battling Ottawa this afternoon and is up 2-0 at the end of the first, Carolina has beaten Tampa Bay 4-1, the New York Rangers play Buffalo this evening (so the Pens will gain at least a point on one of them) and Florida also plays later on today.